Only Love Can Break Your Heart demonstrates how messy relationships can be, be they romantic, platonic or familial. From grief, to love, to forgiveness and hope, this book covered a huge spectrum of life experiences.

For some reason, I’ve had a significant slow down with YA novels this year. I’ve just not been able to settle down and focus on reading, no matter how intriguing various books sound. Most of the time I’ve resorted to audiobooks for which I tend to pick non-fiction books. Thanks to a long haul flight though, I had no distractions to keep me from Mirage. I was happily entertained.

Not the Girls You’re Looking For is way more hard hitting than I had expected. Based on the synopsis I thought it’d be a fun, fluffy high school read with a dash of drama. Sure, there’s drama and the prose is typical of that sort of book but it is a whole lot more intense.

Sharlene Teo writes well and chooses her words very precisely. Her prose is at once cutting, yet atmospheric, which fit Ponti well. Teo’s very talented and the years of hard work she put into honing her craft are evident in her debut novel.

A lot of the time, single people in their late twenties are portrayed as sad, lonely or desperate in the media. I’m glad The Paris Wedding doesn’t go down that road, even if the main character is pining after “the one who got away”. In fact, she’s invited to his destination wedding in Paris, which gives rise to a lot of awkward situations and some humorous ones.